Published in 1888 to immediate popularity (it was the second-ever novel to sell over one million copies in the United States), Looking Backward: 2000–1887 is a dynamic rejection of industrial capitalism, and presents a depiction of a socialist utopia. The book’s influence was such that a large number of ‘Bellamy clubs’ were established in America to discuss the book’s main ideas.

The novel’s protagonist, aristocrat Julian West, falls into a deep hypnotic sleep in 1887 and wakes up in the year 2000 to find a very different Boston from the one he knows. In Dr Leete he finds a guide who explains the humane and efficient society in which he now finds himself – its transformation made possible by political and technological advances.